Gas turbine engines, such as those used to power modern commercial and military aircraft, include a combustor to burn a hydrocarbon fuel in the presence of pressurized air received from a compressor section upstream of the combustor. A fuel supply system may be mounted around the combustor, which is typically annular in shape, to provide the hydrocarbon fuel to a plurality of fuel injectors associated with the combustor of the gas turbine engine.
Such a fuel supply system may be attached to one or more fuel injectors which axially project the fuel into the combustor. The fuel injectors may be connected to one or more fuel supply manifolds which deliver the fuel to the fuel injectors. The fuel supply system may be an assembly of formed tubes which are cut, measured, assembled and then welded to fit around the combustor from fuel injector to fuel injector for that particular fuel injector distribution. In some other examples, the fuel distribution systems may be manufactured in multiple segments for a primary manifold and a secondary manifold. In such examples, the fuel supply manifolds may complicate the assembly process for the combustor. Further, such fuel supply manifolds may be difficult to manufacture and are may add unwanted, excess bulk to the gas turbine engine.
Such fuel supply manifolds are typically mounted to the diffuser case of the engine. However, mounting a fuel supply manifold to the exterior of the diffuser case causes a myriad of issues during production and assembly. For example, the fuel supply manifold may not be in a static position during all cycles of the gas turbine engine. This may be due to expansion/retraction of the diffuser case based on temperature changes within the combustor. Prior designs for fuel supply manifolds included a bearing and bushing combination at the points where the fuel supply manifold is attached to the diffuser case. The bearings and bushings used are a part of the manifold itself and allow for the fuel manifold to remain in place while the bushing slides multi-directionally through the bearing during expansion and/or retraction of the diffuser case. However, due to the stress caused by heat and the heat related expansion and retraction, the bearing and bushing combination may be susceptible to damage, component failure, and/or a loss of effectiveness. When said mechanisms fail in these fuel supply manifolds, the entire fuel manifold must be removed and repaired and/or replaced, causing more unwanted repair costs.
Because current fuel supply manifold designs require removing and/or replacing the entire fuel supply manifold from the diffuser case when a bearing structure fails, a need exists for a replaceable bearing mount mechanism which may mitigate costs associated with the replacing and/or removing the entire fuel supply manifold from the diffuser case.